NASCAR
TALLADEGA, Ala. – After losing February’s Daytona 500 on a late restart, Kyle Busch wins Talladega in double-overtime. On the last lap, Bubba Wallace threw several aggressive blocks on Ryan Blaney, taking both drivers out of contention and causing a crash. Sitting in third at the time was the 8 of Busch, who scooted on by for his second win of 2023. Busch at RCR appears to be a superspeedway sleeper, as he earns his first drafting win since 2008.
Through both Stages there were only two cautions for on-track incidents. One of these occurred under green flag pit stops; Chase Briscoe overcooked his entry, spun the 14, and got stuck with a blown tire. Briscoe was the second driver to loop it on pit entry, as Tyler Reddick also spun a few laps earlier.
The Stage wins would go to Chase Elliott and Aric Almirola, as the 10 made a late pass on the 9 for the second checkered flag.
The first major incident of the day would not occur until the final five laps. Joey Logano was turned from leading the third lane, into the paths of Corey Lajoie, Ricky Stenhouse Jr and others. This sent the race into overtime, as fuel was a concern for almost every driver.
The first attempt at overtime would not last until turn two, as an aggressive move by Ross Chastain sent Noah Gragson hard into the outside wall. Also collected in this melee were Kyle Larson and Ryan Preece after vicious contact. Preece called this crash the hardest hit he’s ever taken.
With fuel even more in doubt for the frontrunners, a second overtime went green with Ryan Blaney and Kyle Busch leading. At the white flag, Wallace made a pass over Busch, appearing in command. In turns one and two however Ryan Blaney had a big run on the 23. Wallace blocked Blaney down to the yellow line, then tried running the 12 wide.
Contact from Blaney sent Wallace spinning and collected many other cars. Just narrowly missing the wrecking Wallace car was Busch, who takes his second win with Richard Childress Racing.
“Sometimes you gotta be lucky,” Busch said. “Some of these races come down to that, and you gotta take them when they come your way. The seas kind of parted there when they went up the racetrack. They were trying to push-draft, and these cars just aren’t stable enough to do that. I saw the 23 turn just a little bit sideways and was like ‘get out of the way, just miss it.’ I was hoping to be ahead of the 12 by the time it was called.”
“Just a great day for another new sponsor at RCR, with McLaren Custom Grills. If you ain’t got a custom grill yet, these things are pretty bomb. We had a great time coming out here and racing, being a part of Team Chevy and getting this Camaro in victory lane.”
“We were sweating it being close (on fuel). It shut off right here as I was trying to do a burnout. Maybe I ran it out. I thought back to Fontana, we have a win, and we gotta gamble. If you’re up here, you have to take the track position when you have it. Go give it what you can on the restarts and see what happens. Low and behold, it worked out. Knock on wood for this one.”
Behind Busch and Blaney, the top-10 were: Chris Buescher, Chase Briscoe, Brad Keselowski, Erik Jones, William Byron, Christopher Bell, Daniel Suarez, and Todd Gilliland. Hear from some of these drivers below.
Kyle Busch is now the third driver with multiple Cup wins 10 races into 2023. In this club he joins fellow Chevrolet drivers William Byron and Kyle Larson. It will be very interesting to see just how many wins Busch can rack up in his first season with the RCR 8 team.
Up next for the NASCAR Cup Series is Dover, as The Monster Mile is on deck. The Wurth 400 will go green Sunday at 2:00 p.m. ET on FS1, PRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. After one Chevrolet win at Talladega, Hendrick Motorsports heads to Delaware hoping for their third-straight checkered flag here and back-to-back bowtie victories.
Written by Peter Stratta
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Photo Credit to Peter Stratta/TSJSports
